FAQs

The City and its project partners are looking for the community’s support in developing the Masterplan. The community’s input will help inform the Masterplan’s vision, its guiding principles, and assist the City in developing partnerships and attracting funding.

The City wants to hear from the community and is asking:

• What is important to you about the oval precinct?
• What are the uses and activities you would like to see there?
• What is important for the City to prioritise and what values need to be balanced as part of the redevelopment?
• What are some of the game-day experiences you would like to see?

Fremantle Oval is where many Aboriginal footballers began their careers and became legends. Some of the greatest WAFL and VFL/AFL players of all time played at Fremantle Oval and created some of sport’s most inspiring stories. The oval is significant for Aboriginal people who came from around Western Australia and Australia to play for South Fremantle, and the Fremantle Football Club while it was based at the oval. In addition, Fremantle Oval has significant meaning to Aboriginal people as a place within Walyalup boodja. 

Specific engagement will be undertaken to connect with Aboriginal people representing Traditional Owners, past and current players, fans and supporters, and invite their stories of the site through a truth-telling process. Further engagement is expected in future stages to help develop opportunities for Aboriginal employment and entrepreneurship through the project’s implementation, and build on the sports and education programs currently operating at the oval.

City officers aim to:

• Obtain feedback on analysis, alternatives, or decisions. 
• Work directly throughout the process to ensure that public concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and considered.
• Work with you to ensure that your concerns and aspirations are directly reflected in the alternatives developed.
• Provide feedback on how public input influenced the decision.

Fremantle Oval’s facilities (e.g. changerooms, lighting, playing surface, patron seating, and public amenities) are in poor condition and unsuitable for supporting the growth of football, in particular women’s football at the community and elite level. At a precinct scale the oval is not well connected to the Fremantle Prison and Fremantle Hospital nor the city centre. 

Redevelopment provides opportunities for new uses and connections within the precinct that would benefit the community, such as health and fitness and childcare facilities that would support centre activity and the precinct’s key neighbours: the Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Hospital and Fremantle Markets. 

There are opportunities to take a holistic approach to planning and coordination at the precinct level by improving parking, the amenity of the public realm and the way in which the precinct’s unique history is told. The oval sits within the World Heritage Buffer Zone of the Fremantle Prison, which redevelopment must respond carefully to. There are significant heritage assets, such as the Victoria Pavilion, that require heritage conservation works and could contribute more to the community through enhanced access and use.

The Fremantle Oval Conservation Management Plan (CMP) has been developed independently of the oval Masterplan, over a period of more than two and half years. It has been developed over a much longer period of time and has closely informed the current Masterplan, rather than the other way around.

Community consultation concluded on the final draft of the CMP in December and recent months have focused on refining the CMP based on feedback received, including from the Fremantle Society, the Fremantle History Society, and other community stakeholders. The consultant (Phil Griffiths) is a highly credentialled and respected heritage professional.   

A ‘Category 4’ facility is a designation used for a venue capable of hosting AFLW games and AFL pre-season competition games. A Tier 2 denotes a venue that caters for state league and community events. Currently, Fremantle Oval is listed as a Tier 2 venue, but requires a lot of temporary infrastructure to maintain this level, and falls well short of facilities consistent with Category 4.

Both designations are complementary. A Category 4 - Tier 2 facility should be capable of accommodating approximately 10,000 to 15,000 patrons, include a high standard of player and patron facilities for elite competition, as well as lighting and media facilities to enable interstate broadcasting. Currently, Western Australia lacks Category 4 facilities capable of supporting AFL and AFLW events.  

A Category 4 facility at Fremantle Oval would consolidate Fremantle as the home ground for the Docker’s AFLW team. A redeveloped venue would also be capable of hosting preseason AFL games, WAFL and WAFLW finals and potentially games of the AFL Gather Round. As a lower cost alternative to the Optus Stadium it would be able to host a range of other sporting, entertainment and community events that find staging difficult in Perth.